Horizon Digital Economy Research Grant (EP/G065802/1)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ORIZON H INTERGENERATIONAL INTERPRETATION OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS Michael Brown, Tim Coughlan, Glyn Lawson1, Richard Mortier, Rob Houghton and Murray Goulden March 2012 1 Corresponding author: [email protected]; 0115 9514003 v.12 – 27th March 2012 Overview This report investigates how different generations within a household interpret individual members’ data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). Adopting a mixed methods approach, we are interested in interpretations of the IoT by teenagers, their parents and grandparents, and how they understand and interact with the kinds of data that might be generated by IoT devices. The first part of this document is a technical review that outlines the key existing and envisaged technologies that make up the IoT. It explores the definition and scope of the Internet of Things. Hardware, networking, intelligent objects and Human-Computer Interaction implications are all discussed in detail. The second section focuses on the human perspective, looking at psychological and sociological issues relating to the interpretation of information generated by the IoT. Areas such as privacy, data ambiguity, ageism, and confirmation bias are explored. The third section brings both aspects together, examining how technical and social aspects of the IoT interact in four specific application domains: energy monitoring, groceries and shopping, physical gaming, and sharing experiences. This section also presents three household scenarios developed to communicate and explore the complexities of integrating IoT technologies into family life. The final section draws together all the findings and suggests future research. v.12 – 27th March 2012 Contents Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 2 Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 3 Technology Review ................................................................................................................................. 4 Definition ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Scope ................................................................................................................................................... 5 Underlying Hardware and Architectures ........................................................................................ 6 Making Objects Part of the IoT ........................................................................................................... 6 Socio-Technical Considerations .......................................................................................................... 8 Connecting and Understanding Heterogeneous Objects ................................................................... 9 Things Acting Smart Together ............................................................................................................. 9 Human Interactions with the IoT ...................................................................................................... 12 The Human Perspective ........................................................................................................................ 15 Defining Generations ........................................................................................................................ 15 Intergenerational Communication and Relationships ...................................................................... 16 Perceptions of Age and Stereotypes ................................................................................................. 17 Age and Technology .......................................................................................................................... 19 Privacy ............................................................................................................................................... 20 Ambiguity .......................................................................................................................................... 22 Social Ambivalence ........................................................................................................................... 23 Event Segmentation .......................................................................................................................... 23 Application Areas .................................................................................................................................. 24 Energy Control .................................................................................................................................. 24 Scenario 1: Energy Micro-Management ....................................................................................... 26 Groceries and Shopping .................................................................................................................... 28 Scenario 2: Food Control ............................................................................................................... 32 Physical Gaming ................................................................................................................................ 33 Sharing Experiences .......................................................................................................................... 34 Scenario 3: Proximity Portrait ....................................................................................................... 36 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................... 38 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... 38 References ............................................................................................................................................ 39 v.12 – 27th March 2012 Technology Review This section describes the core technologies that combine to form a vision of the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT). It begins by considering definitions of the concept from a technological perspective and goes on to explore the key technical issues involved in realising the IoT. Definition A large set of definitions of the IoT have been gathered together by the Postscapes website [1]. Through this it is clear that the IoT has been conceived of in diverse ways, with both broad and narrow definitions. For example, Fleisch [2] describes very simply that “The basic idea of the IoT is that virtually every physical thing in this world can also become a computer that is connected to the Internet”. On the other hand, the European Research Cluster on the Internet of Things (IERC) states in more detail that the “Internet of Things (IoT) enables the things/objects in our environment to be active participants, i.e., they share information with other stakeholders or members of the network; wired/wireless, often using the same Internet Protocol (IP) that connects the Internet. In this way the things/objects are capable of recognizing events and changes in their surroundings and are acting and reacting autonomously largely without human intervention in an appropriate way.” [3]. Writing from a business perspective, Haller et al define the IoT as “A world where physical objects are seamlessly integrated into the information network, and where the physical objects can become active participants in business processes. Services are available to interact with these ‘smart objects’ over the Internet, query their state and any information associated with them, taking into account security and privacy issues.” [4]. Haller goes on to propose that the IoT should be conceptualised in terms of ‘Entities of Interest’, from which state and attribute data can be drawn that is relevant from a user or application perspective. These entities are monitored and interacted with through embedded devices, or through devices that monitor the environment and can thus track the entity – which could for example be identified through a QRCode2 or through image recognition. Though computational devices themselves might be entities of interest to some users (particularly those involved in developing or maintaining the system), they should be considered separate from the entities they monitor to avoid confusion [5]. Atzori et al see unique addressing systems for objects as being at the heart of IoT [6]. For Gigli and Koo, all IoT systems start with ‘identity-related services’ which either passively support identification by scanners or actively broadcast their identity to the surrounding area. Building on this, IoT services can aggregate information from multiple sources, collaborate with us by acting on our behalf with some level of autonomy, and in their fullest future incarnation, services could support ubiquitous monitoring and control of everything in the world [7]. The definitions discussed here and further ones available from [1] contain several core themes: computation in a wide range of objects, networking to share data and provide access, and in many cases ‘smart’ behaviour as a result of this combination. At a technological level, cars, homes, rivers, or crates of apples will still be distinguishable from the Internet itself, but devices that interact